25 A.2d 149 | Pa. | 1942
This is an action in trespass instituted by James Harrington, appellant, to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by him as the result of being struck by a truck driven by James Pugarelli, appellee, while crossing the right-angle intersection of Franklin Avenue and Spruce Street, in the City of Scranton. The jury found a verdict in favor of appellant in the sum of $2,800. Appellee filed a motion for judgment non obstante veredicto, which the court en banc granted, after argument, and judgment was, accordingly, entered for appellee. This appeal followed.
On December 27, 1939, at about 10:00 p. m., appellant approached the southwest corner of Spruce Street and Franklin Avenue, intending to cross Franklin Avenue to the southeast corner. Spruce Street runs east and west, is forty feet in width from curb to curb, and is intersected, at right-angles, by Franklin Avenue, *206 which runs north and south. Franklin Avenue is thirty-five to forty feet in width and has located in the center thereof a single set of street car tracks. Before entering the intersection, which was well lighted, appellant observed that the automatic traffic signal light was green in his favor and, on looking north, he saw the lights of appellee's truck, approaching along Franklin Avenue, at about the middle of the block to the north, 190 feet away, with nothing between those lights and himself. Believing he had ample time to complete the crossing in safety, appellant proceeded across the intersection, at the regular foot crossing from the southwest to the southeast corner, and had just stepped across the westerly rail of the street car track, in the center of Franklin Avenue, when he was struck by appellee's truck, which had proceeded across Spruce Street in disregard of the traffic light against it and in appellant's favor from the time he left the southwest curb until he was struck. Appellant attempted to avoid the accident by stepping backwards, but was too late to escape the right front part of the bumper of the truck which struck him, breaking his leg and otherwise injuring him. Appellant testified that at the time he first observed the truck, 190 feet away, it was "going at a pretty good clip" and that "it could be going forty miles an hour", but stated he "didn't think it was going to come right through." Appellee's testimony was to the effect that he approached the crossing at a speed of fifteen to twenty miles per hour, with the light in his favor, that instead of stepping into the street at the crossing appellant suddenly stepped out from between two parked cars standing along Franklin Avenue at a point south of the intersection, and that he stopped the truck almost instantly.
The trial judge instructed the jury to find for appellee if they believed his version of the facts and they did not choose to so find. Hence, the verdict implies that the jury accepted the evidence favorable to appellant and, on this appeal, we cannot do otherwise: Mackin v. *207 Patterson,
While a court may, in some circumstances, declare that a pedestrian crossing a street in front of an approaching vehicle is precluded from recovery, we do not think this was a case calling for such action. Even at recognized crossings, and notwithstanding that the traffic signal may be in his favor, a pedestrian may not, of course, heedlessly step into the path of a rapidly moving vehicle, and when a pedestrian seeks to recover for injuries sustained under such circumstances the court may, and should, find him guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law. See Schroeder v. Pittsburgh Rys.Co.,
The decisions in Schroeder v. Pittsburgh Rys. Co.,
The judgment is reversed and judgment is here entered for appellant on the verdict.